BitterBlue - 2

Chappie Two

Hours pass with only the ticking of the clock and the distant boom of thunder shouting in the distance.

I wait.

My heart's thundering has calmed. My hands have stopped their trembling. I've been productive, cleaned the blood from my skin and washed the cuts that litter my body. I'll have scars. Many of them, none as bad as Flynn's or Clay's.

Clay.

I keep seeing the way his blue eyes had landed on me. Cold and numb of anything.

I don't want you.

His words echoing out in my brain on constant repeat. He always promised he would never leave me. He promised me. I sound like an immature girl who didn't know better.

Everyone leaves.

What if Flynn didn't come back? What would I do? I don't have any money, no clothes, no food. I don't even know where I am. I take a breath and try to not think about it. Shut off my emotions so my brain doesn't start revisiting the death of my Dad.

Orphan. The word sings on me skin. I have no one now. Clay is gone, Dad is gone...

"We need to go." Flynn says as he slams the front door. Black hair wet like oil on his sun kissed face,

"Where's Clay?" I ask jumping up from the bed, "Did you find him?"

"Yeah, I found him. He's the reason we need to go."

"Tell me everything!" I snap,

"I found him. He punched me. Dad's got into his head. I couldn't get any sense from him. He said something about a suitcase and something about my sis..." He stops his words and runs a hand down his damp face, "He said our sister was still alive."

"Right?"

"Well it's not true Scarlett. We buried her. Me and Clay. She died five years ago." He sits on the edge of the bed, rain drops running from his leather jacket and spilling onto the sheets in a puddle,

"So your dad's told him she's alive?" I say softly, "That's the reason he doesn't want us following him?"

"No. The reason why Clay doesn't want us following him is because he's helping our Dad." Flynn looks me in the eyes,

"He wouldn't."

"He would. You can't understand. Our Dad has ways of controlling people. He's good at games."

"You worked for him once." I state,

"I was undercover, attempting to find information about something. It's how I heard of you and Clay. Now dad's playing a new game. Trying to find something that he thinks your father lost."

"The damned briefcase." I whisper almost to myself. The thing that everyone seemed to want. The very last words my Dad had whispered to me,

Briefcase. Your mum. It's there.

"Do you know where it is?" Flynn's steady eyes blink at me. Blue and cool, so unlike Clay's darker blue,

"I didn't even know about it until the we went into that warehouse." I mutter skipping over the truth. I'm not sure why I don't tell Flynn what my Dad said to me in his dying breaths,

"Clay said we had half an hour to leave here or he would tell Dad where we were." Flynn is throwing the merger belongings we have into a small rucksack,

"He wouldn't Flynn. We have to find him! We have to save him." I grab his arm in desperation. He blinks at my fingers clenching the cold leather of his jacket,

"Clay is safe for now. We are not. We have to go."

"And where are we going? I don't have any place to go." I grunt turning from him,

"Well, that's not true. I'm taking you home Scarlett. We'll figure out something after that." He pulls the rucksack up on his shoulders and looks at me, "Well, are you coming or?"

"My house was burned down." I say softly,

"Maybe not all of it was." He shrugs and holds out a hand full of small scars. I look at it for a second and then reach out grabbing it,

"I'm coming." I whisper,

"You're not alone Little One." He says softly using the pet name he seems to find humorous,

"Nor are you Big One." I say and for the first time in a couple days, something small blooms inside me. Not a huge something, just the flicker of a feeling that isn't painful or consuming.

Hope.

Hope that whatever happens it'll be ok.

"So are we walking or?" I say as we step out of the motel,

"Do I look like someone who walks?" Flynn raises an eyebrow at me, "No, we won't walk."

"Stealing a car?" I ask,

"Is that what my brother done?" He laughs, "No, we're going to catch a coach."

"A coach?" I say. It's such a simple solution. A solution me and Clay never thought of when we were on the run. I mean Clay could hotwire cars with his badass ways and maybe Flynn isn't the type who likes to steal but,

"...but we can sneak on." Flynn finishes whatever he was saying and looks at me. I nod in agreement to god knows what. Not like I can tell him I wasn't listening to a word he was saying,

"Sounds like a plan." I say with another nod so I'm extra convincing,

"Do you always zone out when someone's talking to you?" He chuckles. I don't bother answering. Instead I enjoy the cool rain drops hitting my skin. After sitting in the motel for hours it's refreshing to not be cooped up inside it's dusty four walls. Refreshing to be doing something, anything to stop my thoughts swirling and remembering that I was an orphan, that Clay has left me, that I had nothing. Well, that wasn't entirely true. It could have been worse. I could have been completely on my own. I had Flynn. He wasn't the right brother but at least he was here. He had a plan, he knew what to do.

We would get Clay back. We would get revenge. I would find that stupid briefcase, even though I had no idea why it was important. I would hold a gun to the evil Frog's head and pull the trigger. Shatter his life just like he had done to me.

Hope was all I had left.

Revenge was the only thing I could allow myself to think about. As long as my thoughts stayed on the mission then I could walk. I could move. I wouldn't have to think about all the shitty things that we're really happening.